The G124 project, promoted by Renzo Piano during his tenure as Senator for Life, explores the regeneration of urban peripheries through targeted and replicable interventions aimed at improving the quality of public space and social relationships. Within this framework, the redevelopment of Corte Don Bosco, in the San Paolo district of Bari, is conceived as an urban device capable of activating new dynamics of use and collective appropriation.

The intervention defines a large urban garden structured by a grid of trees (laurel and holm oak) set within stone-framed plots, integrated with permeable paving. At the center, a circular clearing forms a flexible civic space, enclosed by a continuous stone նստ and a radial layout of bush-hammered stone paving, designed to accommodate the natural variations in ground levels.

Local stone represents the project’s defining material, used to articulate geometries, edges, and functional elements, in continuity with the region’s construction tradition. Developed under the scientific coordination of the Polytechnic University of Bari and with the active involvement of the local community, the project can be understood as an act of “urban mending,” aimed at reactivating a shared space and strengthening a sense of belonging.

Photo: A. Amoretti